The idea of the meme is to list five things in your life now that you would have never thought would be in your life when you were 25.

1. HerselfYeah, I know, I know, it’s sappy. Live with it. But ten years ago, Herself was going to marry (if not already married to) the now-ex, and while we were friends I would never have thought at that time that we’d be together.

2. A HouseWell, not “a” house, I suppose, but “Owning a house”, definitely not. Ten years ago I was a year out of being in the pub/hotel trade, and living in a rented flat down in Weymouth. Thoughts of house-purchase had never really been entertained, and really weren’t until late ’05, I think. Until then I was quite happy with renting, and in some ways I could still go back to it – although that’s not a statement of intent, I should point out.

3. A carAgain, I’d never really thought about sorting out driving, and passing the test. Yes, there’d been a couple of things where driving would have made things a lot easier, but there was always someone who could help out, or give me a lift on those occasions. Other than that, I didn’t really need one. Now, life would be much harder if I couldn’t drive – it probably would’ve precluded the house completely, just on the grounds that there’s absolutely sod-all public transport in the area that I could use to feasibly get to the nearest train station, supermarket, library, town, city, anything.

4. A businessActually, I’ve had one of these before, and I’m just going through the guff of setting up a new one. But back when I was 25, having my own company was a pipe-dream, never really expecting it to happen the way it has. The additional part of that would be that I didn’t really expect to still be in IT and websites ten years on- not that I had any idea what I would be doing, either- so that’s another surprise really.

5. The lifestyle I’ve now got.At 25, I couldn’t have imagined at all that I’d be living in Norfolk, doing a passable impression of “The Good Life”, with my own chickens, garden, plans for the veg patch, and a fairly solid interest in all things Green – wind and solar power, self-sufficiency, water butts galore, (which reminds me, we really must start making some use of the big one that’s hidden away behind the shed. It’s full, and has been since October, but it’s rained so much, we haven’t had cause to drain it) butterfly and insect habitats, bird feeders, and all those trappings of hippydom. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.